


Dear Arthur

by intotheblue



Category: Merlin (TV)
Genre: Angst, Angst with a Happy Ending, Future Fic, Immortal Merlin, M/M, Merlin writes, Post-Canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-02-14
Updated: 2017-02-14
Packaged: 2018-09-24 10:19:13
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 982
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9718052
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/intotheblue/pseuds/intotheblue
Summary: After Arthur's death, Merlin writes him letters.





	

**Author's Note:**

> Happy Valentine's Day! The plan was fluff. I did not succeed. Hope you enjoy anyway! And to those reading my in-progress fic: not to worry, that update will be today, as scheduled!

_Dear Arthur,_  

 _It's been six days, eleven_ _hours, and thirty-eight minutes. Please come back._  

 _Merlin_  

 

 _Dear Arthur,_  

 _It's been a month now. I'm not sure I believe what the dragon said, except that I have to. Still, I can't help but think Albion's need for you will never be greater than mine, here and now. Please come back._  

 _Merlin_  

 

 _Dear Arthur,_  

 _It's been three years. Gaius died today. I'm going home to Ealdor. I cannot bear to stay in Camelot any longer. I'm sorry I failed you. Please come back._  

 _Merlin_  

 

 _Dear Arthur,_  

 _You'd be proud of her. Gwen, I mean. She is the greatest Queen this land has ever seen. She and Leon have married. I think you'd be happy, knowing that. They both deserve to be happy. She'll always love you, though. It's been five years, almost to the day, and I still wish you'd come back._  

 _Merlin_  

 

 _Dear Arthur,_  

 _It's been a long time. Perhaps thirty years. I'm beginning to wonder if my wait won't be a great deal longer. It's a terrifying thought, Arthur. I'll be here when you awake, though. I promise._  

 _Merlin_  

 

 _Dear Arthur,_  

 _It seems I was correct. It's been one hundred and fifty years, and though I feel the aches and pains of an old man, they are easily swept away. It's strange, this. Watching the world move on around me. Sometimes it feels as though I am no longer a part of it. I've decided to travel. At first, I was afraid to wander too far from the lake, but I'll feel it when you return. I'll be there._  

 _Merlin_  

 

 _Dear Arthur,_  

 _It has been some four hundred years, and I miss you still. Please come back._  

 _Merlin_  

 

 _Dear Arthur,_  

 _It's been eight_ _hundred years, and the world is so much larger than we ever could have imagined. Some of it is wonderful. Other parts... less so. A black death has swept across Europe. I have helped where I could but, after all these years, my magic begins to fade. With each passing year, there is less of it left in the world, and I feel it's loss near as keenly as yours_ _. I thought that, perhaps, this would be your return. But what good is a king against pestilence._  

 _Merlin_  

 

 _Dear Arthur,_  

 _I'm begin to forget so much. When magic still coursed through the veins of the Earth, it was easy to cling to memories of old. Now though, your face is the only one that my mind still holds. I fear the day I might lose it, too. I'm not sure how long it has been, but I have begun to fear that you will not return. The world is changing, so very quickly._  

 _Merlin_  

 

 _Dear Arthur,_  

 _You would be amazed to see them. Great ships, the likes of which we could have only imagined. They sail across entire oceans, taking months or years to reach the New World. I think you would have wanted to see it. I miss you terribly. Sometimes, the place where the ocean meets the sky reminds me of your eyes._  

 _Merlin_  

 

 _Dear Arthur,_  

 _There are great machines that belch smoke into the sky. The soot blackens everything. Perhaps you will return now. The few vestiges of magic that remain shrivel at the touch of the machines. It hurts, to walk alone in this world. Please come back._  

 _Merlin_  

 

 _Dear Arthur,_  

 _They tell stories of you, still, even as man invents a flying machine. They have created a mechanical dragon, and yet they still find themselves looking back to you. They've got most of the details wrong, I think, but they remember your greatness._  

 _Merlin_  

 

 _Dear Arthur,_  

 _There has never been war such as this. Were there ever a time for you to come home, it would be now. They need you, Arthur. I need you. There is fire raining from the sky, and children rushing to kill. Please come back._  

 _Merlin_  

 

 _Dear Arthur,_  

 _Was it a lie? Did the Great Dragon give me such cruel hope, to keep me from going mad all these years? Or perhaps I was mad, to ever believe it true. There is no magic left in the world, save perhaps the cruel spark that keeps me alive. How could you possibly return?_  

 _Merlin_  

 

 _Dear Arthur,_  

 _Please come back._  

 _Merlin_  

 

 _Dear Arthur,_  

 _I miss you._  

 _Merlin_  

 

 _Dear Arthur,_  

 _I-_  

 

     Merlin is writing another letter to a distant relic when he feels it. He feels the pull of something he hasn't felt in centuries.  _Magic_. He gives into it, allows it to do with him what it will. When he opens his eyes, he is young again, standing on the shores of a lake that should've dried long ago. Before him is a ripple, in the otherwise still surface.  

     He places his hand gently on the water, careful not to break the tension. A hand meets his own. He gasps, tears pooling at the corners of his eyes. He dares not hope, until the fingers of the hand curl around his own. He pulls. 

     The man in front of him has not changed. His armor has not rusted, and his face remains unmarred by the sands of time.  

     "Arthur," Merlin whispers, in a tongue long forgotten by man.  

     He surges around his king, clinging and sobbing, and completely terrified to let go.  

     "I got your letters," Arthur whispers in his ear, voice rough from millenia of disuse (or perhaps from emotion). 

     Merlin pulls back, ever so slightly. "You..." He trails off. 

     "I missed you, too," Arthur says. Then, he fits his mouth over Merlin's, and it's more than the traveler could have ever wished. 

     In this moment, Merlin can't bring himself to wonder what horror Arthur's return heralds. In this moment, it is only he, his King, and the sort of love that spans over twenty lifetimes.  

 

 _Dear Arthur,_  

 _Thank you._  

 _Merlin_  

**Author's Note:**

> Hope you enjoyed! I'd love to hear any thoughts you may have had in the comments!


End file.
